Building renovation helps DSS serve public

The Wilson County Department of Social Services strives to make a positive difference in the lives of those we serve, those we touch through our community partners, in the lives and families of our professional family and all across Wilson County.

Over most of 2018, our agency was engaged in a major renovation project to improve our lobby and front entrance. These changes were implemented to help make our facility safer for our customers and staff, and to help make it simpler for our customers to receive the services they need in a timely manner.

We were thrilled to reopen our lobby at the end of November. Customer response has been overwhelmingly positive regarding our increased security, newer surroundings and more efficient business structure. Many of our customers are now able to simply walk into our lobby, see one of our customer service specialists, have their needs met within 10 to 15 minutes and be on their way back to their job, school or home.

This commitment to customer service is a cornerstone of everything we do at Wilson County DSS. We continuously look to improve the quality of our work and the services we offer. We routinely evaluate our efforts and we look to make changes that are beneficial and bring about higher quality, better efficiency or that offer new services to our community.

I am very proud to be part of an agency that is committed to improving lives. We know, however, that we do not accomplish this task alone. It is through our work with our numerous outstanding community partners that we are able to make a difference for our fellow Wilson County citizens.

As in years past, this year our agency was called upon to assist the community through a storm. Wilson County DSS moved quickly to assist both during the storm at the emergency shelter and after with disaster food assistance and crisis intervention services in the wake of Hurricane Florence.

Once again, we were honored to receive several awards that recognized programs for providing outstanding service to our community.

At Wilson County DSS, we will continue to focus our efforts on safe children, thriving youth, self-sufficient families and healthy adults, and we will deliver this through reliable service. We look forward to working together for a better Wilson County in 2019.

Glenn Osborne

Wilson

The writer is director of the Wilson County Department of Social Services.